


The Birth of The Flash

by FlashWestVibe



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AU, Barry Allen is The Flash, Central City, F/F, F/M, M/M, More characters to come, Probably some Spallen, Season 1 pretty much, Speed Force, but a rewrite of sorts, i have no clue what to tag, westallen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:13:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28025304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlashWestVibe/pseuds/FlashWestVibe
Summary: AU set in The Flash season 1. Basically a rewrite of S1.CSI investigator Barry Allen awakens from a coma, nine months after he was hit by lightning, and discovers he has superhuman speed.Left to deal with things on his own, Barry will have to figure out how to harness his powers and become the hero Central City needs.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Iris West
Comments: 17
Kudos: 25





	1. Episode 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! This is my first crack at a Flash fic, but I’m really excited to make the story my own.  
> I love the show SO much, but this fic won’t really have anything that majorly connect to the show.  
> Everything I do will pretty much be non-canon.  
> Sorry to any OG Flash fans, but there may not be much of Cisco or Caitlin. Sorry :/  
> I’d still love if you could stick around and give the fic a chance.  
> I’m hoping I can post a chapter at least once a week. Probably on Friday/Saturday.  
> Please, leave any constructive criticism or requests in the comments. I appreciate any and all interactions! <3

_Life doesn’t give us purpose, we give life purpose_. 

That’s what his dad used to say anyways. It’s what he told Barry Allen ever since he came back from career day at the elementary school, bummed out that he had no idea what he wanted to do in the future. 

It’s why his dad gave what he could to charity, why he became a doctor. He chose to help people for a living. He gave his life purpose by serving the greater good. 

Until his life was torn away when Barry was eleven. When the man in the yellow suit murdered his mother and framed his father. Now his father was rotting away in prison, for a crime he didn’t commit. 

But still, when Barry would visit him at Iron Heights, his father would repeat those words. Along with his usual speech about Barry not wasting his life by taking on his fathers problems. Those words still rung true, his father was someone else he needed to help. 

Ever since he became a hero of sorts, those were the words he had tried to live by. His fathers ideologies were now his. 

It wasn’t too hard to follow them. He’d become a forensic scientist as a way to someday bring his mothers killer to justice and prove his fathers innocence. But also because he got to help people. No, not the people who died, but their families. 

The families who struggled to pick up the pieces after losing someone to a murder. Barry knew what that was like. But as a forensic scientist, he could give them some piece of mind. 

And as a speedster, he could help everyone else in Central City. He could bring hope to millions of people, give them someone to count on. 

He hadn’t had that in a very long time. 

It was nice to see that smile on a child’s face. To see the gratitude in someone’s eyes when he saved their life. 

It made the hard times worth it. It made the lonely times worth it. 

Barry had never been the most social kid. He’d never had a ton of friends or been the popular kid that everyone loved. 

There were a few friends throughout his school years that were nice. But none of them stuck and eventually they all moved on. Some moved different places and some he just lost touch with.

There were people at the station that were kind to him. Some invited him out to the bar after work, some just waved and smiled at him in the morning. 

But still, it had been hard for him to keep close friends since becoming a meta. For the first month after he got powers, he mostly stayed holed up in his apartment.

There was so much that happened in those nine months he was stuck in the hospital, comatose. 

And even for someone with super-speed, that was a lot to try and catch up on. 

It had now been two months since he became endowed with powers. And suffice it to say, he was still learning the ropes.

Much of the city had already embraced him as “The Streak”, but there were still those that were weary of him and the dangers he brought with him.

Like last night. 

When he’d been trying to come to a stop after stopping a car chase, only to lose his footing and literally roll into a truck. A truck which had oil and had started a huge fire. 

Luckily, they were on the outskirts of the city and he was able to put the fire out within five minutes. 

But it was embarrassing and only fueled the idea that he was dangerously naïve about his abilities. 

“Uh, sir?”

Barry startled, coming to and realizing he’d been staring at the barista for an unknown amount of time. 

He looked back, embarrassed to see a haughty looking woman tapping her foot in annoyance, thumbing away at her phone. 

“S-sorry.” He pinked. “I’ll just have a grande vanilla latte, please.” 

Truth was, he didn’t need the coffee. It didn’t do much for him at all really. But he loved the taste and the hot liquid was soothing. Especially on cold, rainy days like this. 

The barista wrung him up and he stuffed a couple of dollars into her tip jar, moving to wait at the other end of the counter for his drink. 

He pulled up his own phone and flicked through the news, smiling a little when he saw an old saved article about _The Streak’s_ first big take down. 

Clyde Mardon, a man who’d already had a criminal record before Harrison Wells’ particle accelerator explosion. A man with the ability to control the weather. Yeah.

It was stuff young Barry would have flipped his lid over (though secretly older Barry geeked out sometimes). 

Mardon was the only meta he’d faced so far, but that was enough to ground him and make him realize how serious this was. 

Joe West, one of CCPD’s finest officers, had nearly died the night Mardon attacked. It made Barry see that while having powers was unbelievably fun, it also forced him into a position of responsibility. 

“Grande vanilla latte for Bart.” The barista called lazily, plopping the drink at the end of the counter.

He quickly grabbed the cup and headed for the door, not even bothering to correct the barista that he saw nearly every morning. The one that got his name wrong 9/10 times.

Moving his feet a little faster, he took a sip of the hot coffee and sighed contentedly, prepared to dart down a nearby alley and just run to work. It would give him time to start on the piles of paperwork Captain Singh had no doubt dropped onto his desk. 

“Barry!” He whipped his head around, startled to see Patty Spivot jogging after him, trying to wave him down. 

Patty Spivot, partner of Joe West at CCPD and one of the nicest people there. She’d been a good friend since he’d gotten out of his coma.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Hey, Patty. What are you doing down this way? Thought you lived uptown?”

Oh god, he hoped that didn’t sound as super creepy to her as it did to him…

“Oh, I do! I was stopping by my favorite pastry shop across the street. They’re the only ones that make the bear claws just the way I like them.” She held up a box and shook it a little. “If you’re nice, I’ll share them when we get to the station. Hey, speaking of; I know you don’t drive, so do you want to take the train together? I’d love the company.” 

Barry chuckled, nodding. Darn, no super-speeding to work today, then. “Sure, Patty. Lead the way.”

She grinned broadly and sped up to walk alongside him. “So, how’s the crime lab been lately? Not too busy, I hope.”

Barry shrugged, taking another sip of his coffee. “It’s been alright. Pretty quiet, honestly. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. Singh’s been loading me up on paperwork though, so that kinda sucks.”

Patty giggled, “Yeah, he likes to keep you busy, huh? You’re one of his favorites though, I can tell.”

“He has a funny way of showing it.” Barry snorted with a smile.

“He trusts you. Which is more than most people there can say.” Patty thanked him when he stepped back to allow her to cross into the train station first. 

They waited with the crowd of people for the b-train to make its way down the track. 

“What about you? How’re things going with Joe? You liking Central City?” A cold breeze swept through the station and it was like everyone shivered at the same time. 

Patty snuggled deeper into her jacket, her voice muffled by the collar of her coat now. 

“Joe is really nice. And he’s been through so much, you know? There’s really no one better to be learning from as a cop.” As she spoke, Barry could see the respect for the other man shining in her eyes.

“And the city?”

“The city is beautiful. Much better and so much cleaner than Gotham. And people have been nice here. My neighbor, Julie, took me to this Mongolian Grill and I’ve been obsessed with it for _weeks_ now.”

She continued to talk about the restaurants she’d been to and even a couple museums as they boarded the train.

He just watched her with an amused smile on his face. She’d always been a talker, which Barry didn’t mind. He was always more of a listener anyways. 

Patty was sitting by the window, so Barry was able to look at her and also take in some of the sights of the city. 

Sometimes he missed the ability to take things in while traveling places. With his super-speed, he was there so quick he didn’t have time to enjoy the sights. 

The rain was getting heavier too. It was now pattering lightly against the window, and streaking down quickly as the train whipped by. 

As they passed the old Star Labs building, Barry stomach churned. 

It used to be such an important and incredible place. He used to ride by it on this very train and stare. It was such a technological marvel, a place that brought such hope for the future of science. 

And now it had parts missing on the roof, presumably where the particle accelerator had blew. There were other burn marks all of the building, and the lights hadn’t been turned on since that night. 

The owner and genius of it all, Harrison Wells, hadn’t been heard from since either. From what the media said, he was still holed up in his giant house, alone and humiliated by his failures.

There were also a lot of people that hated him for what happened and blamed him for the gaping hole that was now the old lab. And of course, for all the lives lost that night.

It was a mess, really. And it made Barry so sad. This was a man he’d looked up to, a man whose book he owned, and here he was, hiding out in his giant mansion. 

“It’s upsetting isn’t it?” Patty’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

He flushed, embarrassed that she’d caught him not paying attention. “W-what?”

“Star Labs.” She jerked her thumb behind her. “To think that almost a year ago, we were truly on the brink of greatness. Imagine the incredible things we could have achieved as a society if that accelerator had worked.”

“Yeah.” Barry sighed. “It would have changed the way we think about everything, the world would be a lot different right now, I think.”

Patty shook her head as if to shake away the sad thoughts. “So. Do you want to come to the exhibit with me Friday?”

His heart skipped a beat.

_Crap, what? Had she already been explaining this exhibit thing while he wasn’t paying attention?_

“Uh, uh-“ He sputtered, feeling his cheeks turn red.

Patty backtracked, her own face turning equally as red. “A-as friends of course. I just don’t know many people yet. And I know even fewer who would actually understand the science of it all.”

He felt guilty that he hadn’t been listening and even guiltier that she was also embarrassed now. “Yeah, that sounds really fun, Patty. What time did you say it was?”

The pink was fading from her cheeks and she looked a little relieved. “Doors open at 7:45. That okay? We can meet there if you want.”

“Perfect. Just text me the address.” 

He didn’t really know what this was about, but she was excited and it had to do with science so it couldn’t be that bad, right?

“Will do.” She beamed just as the train lurched to a stop. 

“Thanks for keeping me company this morning, Barry. Usually I take this train all by myself and it gets kinda lonely.” She told him as they followed the other patrons and shuffled off the train. 

“No thanks required, Patty. I’m your friend. And that was much nicer than being alone.” He assured her.

Under the rooftop of the tracks, that’s when they remembered it was raining. 

“Oh! Hold this.” She passed Barry the box of bear claws and rummaged around in her bag for a moment before pulling out a lilac colored umbrella. “I’m always prepared.”

He chuckled and offered to carry the treats to the police station for her. 

It didn’t take long, thankfully. Since it was still fairly early, traffic was light at this time both on the street and on the sidewalks. So they reached the police station within ten minutes.

He waited for her to shake the umbrella free of water droplets before passing her back her bear claws and then they got on the elevator together.

“Hey baby-face. Spivot.” One of the older officers acknowledged them both with a smile as he got on after them. 

“Morning Frank.” Barry nodded politely before Patty did the same.

The elevator pinged and they all filed out. 

“I’ll see you later, Barry.” Patty waved, heading to where Joe was already seated at his desk. 

“Bye!” Barry waved back, turning quickly to head up the stairs before Singh could catch him and ask about the reports that he’d asked for _yesterday_.

He turned so abruptly, however, that he ran directly into someone else, sending his coffee both up his neck and down the shorter person’s shirt.

“Shit! I’m so- hi.”

He blinked as he looked down at Joe West’s daughter, Iris. Arguably one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen in his entire life. 

The usual wave of shyness and awkwardness creeped up on him quicker than he expected and be nearly reached out on instinct to pat her dry before remembering that was her _chest_ so that was a definite no-no.

Iris looked irritated for a moment before she looked up at who it was. “Hi. Barry, right?”

He nodded (maybe a little too enthusiastically) and tried to wipe at the coffee on his neck with the sleeve of his jacket. “Yep. You know, Joe talks about you all the time. We also went to school together.” 

“Yeah, that’s right.” She smiled, “Dad talks about you a lot too. Says you’re the only CSI he fully trusts to get the job done well at a crime scene.”

Barry blushed. “Does he really?” 

“Oh yeah. He also may have mentioned your nickname is baby-face?”

He blushed even _harder_ at that. “Some detective called me that on my first day and it kinda stuck…” 

“Well, I think it’s cute.” She shrugged like it was no big deal. Like her saying those words didn’t make Barry’s heart beat quicker than it already should as a speedster. “Sorry about your coffee though. Wish I hadn’t given that extra coffee to Officer Mendel now.”

He waved her off, secretly freaking out that he was actually talking to her. And didn’t seem like a total dweeb that tripped over his words. 

“It’s no problem. I was almost done anyways. I’m sorry about your shirt.” He frowned. “Can I pay for the dry cleaning?”

She looked at him curiously, “No no, I could never ask that. You’re too sweet. I always keep an extra set of clothes in my car in case of emergency anyways. I’ll be okay.”

“You sure?” He pressed, leaning over and tossing the cup in the trashcan. 

She smiled at him. And it was so damn pretty Barry nearly collapsed. “I’m sure.” She bit her lip and looked up at him through her lashes. “Thanks though.”

His mouth got dry and squeaked out an “Anytime.” 

“Well. I better go. Don’t want to be late to work again. See you around, Barry.” She glanced at her shirt to make sure it wasn’t see-through before heading off to the elevators.

“Bye, Iris!” He waved, watching her go until the elevator doors shut on her smiling face. 

_God, she was beautiful._

He sighed and took the stairs up to his lab at a jog. If he hurried, he could get there, fill out the report at super-speed and be done before Singh came upstairs. That way he could avoid the verbal-lashing he was no doubt about to get as soon as Singh realized Barry was here.

He opened the door and sure enough, there were several cases already laid out in a pile on his desk with a post-it on the top one saying 

_ Have top 3 done by TODAY. Very urgent _

Cracking open the locker and placing his jacket and bag inside, he opened the blinds to let in some natural light before opening up the first file. 

He worked diligently, occasionally using his speed to get something done quicker but otherwise working at a steady pace.

He’d gotten through the first three important ones, plus two more when there was a knock on his door. 

He looked up to see Joe West blinking at him from the doorway. “Hey, Allen. We’ve got a crime scene in Chubbuck. Singh wants you packed up and ready to go in ten. You’re riding with me.”

“Okay, thanks Detective West.” He smiled.

The other man nodded with a smile of his own before disappearing again.

Barry had long since found Joe one of the best people on the force. Kind, respected, and great at what he did. 

And he never called Barry baby-face to his knowledge. Maybe he did respect Barry as much as Iris said.

The thought made him feel warm inside. There was no better detective to have on ones side than Joe West. 

He packed up his forensic kit and headed back down the stairs. 

“Might want to bring an umbrella, Allen.” Joe called from his desk where he was strapping his gun holster to his chest and clipping on his badge. “It’s raining cats and dogs out there.”

He then pointed to the large set of windows behind him, where it was indeed pouring rain. 

Joe slid his suit jacket on. “It hasn’t rainier this hard in a while. Mother Nature must be pissed off about somethin’.” Joe shook his head. “Let’s go, Spivot.” He called back towards Singh’s office where Patty was talking animatedly to the slightly annoyed Captain. 

She sprung into action and hurried towards them. “Oh, Barry! You’re coming with us?”

“Yeah.” Barry nodded, pulling the strap on his forensic kit tighter around his shoulder as they both followed Joe. “I can’t drive, or, I don’t have a car.”

She nodded with a shy smile while Joe looked at them with raised eyebrows. “Okay. Let’s just get going, you two.” He pressed the button on the elevator and waited for them to go through first. 

When they got outside, the rain was coming down so hard it hurt, and they all ran as fast as they could (well, not Barry), towards the car.

“Geez!” Patty sputtered as she sat in the passengers seat and Barry slid into the back, feeling weird. He’d never been on this side of a police car and it was unnerving to say the least. 

The rain was coming down very hard. 

“What the hell is going on? This rain is crazy.” Joe huffed, starting the car and heading off towards the crime scene.

Barry looked up at the sky through the car window. It wasn’t unusual for Central City to have lots of rain. But it had never been like this. And with no rain in the forecast for the week, it was rather odd.

He felt something in the pit of stomach telling him something was off. That same feeling he got when he’d realized Clyde Mardon could actually control the weather. 

Thunder clapped above them and startled everyone in the car.

Mmm. Crazy indeed. 


	2. Episode 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, a day earlier than I said I might, but I’ve had a lot of free time this week :)  
> Hope you all enjoy the new chapter! There are some cameos in it ;)

The freak storm that was taking over Central City was now on its third day of straight rain and thunderstorms.

It was unlike anything the people of the city had ever seen.

And so Barry moved from suspicious, to outright paranoid.

Which was unfortunate because he had promised Patty he’d go to that science exhibit (which learned through her text was at Mercury Labs).

It was fine, she was really nice.

But really, he should be figuring out a way to investigate this freak storm.

He should be establishing a better operation here.

At this point, he’d only managed to salvage an old police radio that had been about to be thrown out and he was using that to keep track of crimes.

His “suit” consisted of a hoodie, a mask, and a pair of pants.

There still hadn’t been a meta human sighting since Clyde Mardon, which was a relief as much as it was worrisome.

There was no possible way that Barry and Clyde were the only ones affected by the particle accelerator explosion that night. Which meant all the others were just in hiding and waiting to come out of the shadows.

Whether they were going to use their abilities for good or evil was what worried him the most.

And to top it all off, he was still getting a handle on coming to a stop after running home to his apartment. He’d already busted through his front door twice and had to get to fixed.

His neighbors probably thought he was nuts. Or that he was involved with some very shady people that busted down his door.

He had a feeling he was starting to garner suspicion and that was not good.

Back to the task at hand, he super sped to his closet and grabbed another tie, groaning when it _still_ wasn’t right.

Should he even wear a tie?

God, this was so frustrating. There was a reason he was so quiet and never wanted to go out with people.

He still wasn’t sure if this was a date or not, because that’s kind of how Patty was treating it.

The thought made him even more nervous.

Barry wasn’t exactly a social butterfly when it came to having friends or a life outside his job(s).

So romantic relationships?

Psh. Not a chance in hell. His last girlfriend was during his sophomore year of college and she was a biology major. It had only lasted a couple months before she broke it off.

Since then, it had been nothing. Nada. Zilch. Quite embarrassing, really. For a twenty four year old man in the prime of his life to have absolutely no sex life.

He wasn’t even sure if he liked Patty that way. Sure, she’d been nice to him and they had a lot in common, but he didn’t feel romantic towards her.

Maybe he’d just wear a clean shirt with a blazer. Formal, but also casual. Not sending an signals, but showing that he was a gentleman that put effort into his appearance.

He looked in the mirror after the quick change and decided it was good enough. It’s not like he was style savvy either.

Checking his watch and pocketing his phone, his eyes bugged out when he realized he was meeting Patty there in less than five minutes.

Then he remembered he had super-speed and could be there in less than a minute.

How did pre-speedster him _ever_ get anything done?

He locked up the apartment and headed towards Mercury Labs downtown.

Apparently Patty knew one of the scientists there and they’d gotten her access to this exhibit, which was pretty exclusive apparently.

There weren’t a ton of people waiting outside, most likely some family, friends, and investors.

He stopped sloppily next to a dumpster on the side of the building, making sure nothing was on fire as he patted down his blazer (that last time had been a _disaster_ ).

When he was sure he looked completely normal, he joined the throng of people waiting outside to be let in.

There were a couple security guards near the front door and metal detectors set up next to them.

“Barry!” He turned and smiled as Patty came hurrying towards him, dressed in a knee-length cream-colored dress underneath a light jacket. “I’m so glad you could make it!”

He gestured towards the building. “Me too. This looks like it’s going to be incredible. Thanks for inviting me.”

“No problem, Barry.” She smiled up at him as they got into line.

The entire area was covered so they were thankfully safe from the copious amounts of rain still pouring down.

Barry straightened out his blazer, shifting nervously from foot to foot.

Patty struck up a conversation about work and Barry engaged in the conversation as much as he could, still preoccupied with so many thoughts.

He didn’t know if it was his speedster brain, but the thoughts were coming incredible fast and all at once. It was a overwhelming so when they finally got inside, he immediately grabbed a glass of champagne. 

It didn’t affect him unfortunately (a fact he learned a couple weeks after getting his powers). But the taste on his tongue was enough to distract him a little.

There was so much to do, so much to figure out.

What was up with the weather?

Did Clyde Mardon somehow come back from the dead?

How was Barry going to keep testing his limits as a speedster when he knew pretty much nothing about how his powers worked?

Was there a source of them?

Should he find someone to help him or try to do this all on his own.

The slew of thoughts were maddening and he knew Patty could tell he was distracted by the way she raised an eyebrow at him and put her hand on his forearm comfortingly.

“Barry, are you okay?” She asked softly after his second (third?) glass of champagne.

Barry flushed pink, shaking his head. “Yeah! Yeah, I’m sorry Patty. Just a lot on my mind. But hey, let’s go look at some of the projects they’re working on here. I’m sure there’s some really interesting stuff.” He smiled at her, a little forced but he felt bad for being such a terrible friend.

She had after all, asked him here to hang out and talk science. And truthfully, there were few people in his life he could actually do that with.

Once they got into the groove of things and saw more projects, Barry began to loosen up a bit.

The scientists they’d come across so far were really nice and always happy to talk about the projects. It seemed they were stationed at strategic points throughout each floor, presenting their work and helping to showcase Tina McGee’s life’s work.

They’d been through the first four floors and were halfway through the fifth when one of the scientists approached them as they were discussing a lightning optofluidic platform.

“This is one of our most promising research projects right now. It works using a silicon chip inside a microfluidic section, allowing us to basically record video of single cells. Isn’t that cool?”

The young man, who couldn’t have been any old than Barry himself, was also wearing a blazer but it was over a pair of nice jeans and an “entropy happens” t-shirt.

His long black hair was tied back in a loose, messy ponytail, and his hands were shoved into his pocket.

He certainly did not look like most of the scientists here, all of which were sharply dressed in suits or dresses.

Barry smiled at the other man while Patty raised a surprised eyebrow.

“You work here? Wow, you’re really young. That’s pretty impressive to be working amongst so many older scientists.” She was clearly taking in his attire as well.

The man blushed a little. “Yeah. I’m fresh out of college, actually. Doctor McGee kind of took me under her proverbial wing after- after some things didn’t exactly go my way. Everyone here kinda gives me flack for being so young.” He chuckled.

Barry perked up a little. “I know how that is. We work at CCPD and I’m a forensic investigator there. I _still_ get called ‘babyface’.”

The other man laughed, looking at Barry dead-on now. “I can see that. Glad I’m not the only wiz-kid here.”

“Ramon, aren’t you supposed to be monitoring the equipment on the fourth floor?” A drawling and annoyed voice spoke up.

‘Ramons’ face changed completely and turned sheepish. Barry craned his neck to look behind him and saw another young man approaching.

This one wore a dapper black and white suit and had brown, almost circular glasses perched on his nose. He was very pale and he had an air of arrogance about him that Barry found a little off putting.

“He was just telling us about the exhibit.” Patty cut in, “It’s a really interesting project.”

The pale man had his hands behind his back as he stepped in closer. “Just wait until you get to our medical wing. That stuff is truly spectacular.”

Patty smiled politely and nodded. “I assume you’re a scientist here too?”

“Yes. I work in the biomedical engineering wing.” He nodded, jerking his thumb towards Ramon. “I’m meant to check on and monitor this one but he keeps leaving his post.”

Ramon hung his head and tucked an escaped strand of hair behind his ear. “Right. Sorry. I’ll just get back to it. Nice talking to you both.” He nodded towards Barry and Patty and then took off, clearly embarrassed.

Barry tried not to let his distaste for the paler man show as said man turned back towards them. “He’s our newest recruit and Doctor McGee is quite fond of him.”

He thought he detected a slight hint of jealousy in the other mans tone, but it was gone soon after.

“Anyways. I hope you enjoy the rest of your night, I need to get back to work.”

And then the man was gone.

“He was kinda rude.” Patty said quietly, turning back to Barry after glaring at the pale man’s back.

Barry had to agree. “That other guy was nice though.”

“So.” Patty began conversationally, twisting her hands in the strap of her purse. “You know, there’s talk amongst the detectives about planning a party for Captain Singh next week. It’s his fortieth birthday. His husband Rob is even getting involved. I was wondering if you want to go in on a gift together?”

Barry’s stomach lurched. Oh god. How can he let her down easy? 

He’s just opened his mouth to stutter our some excuse when a sudden boom from outside startled everyone in the vicinity. The way things got quiet was eerie.

Barry looked to Patty and she was looking back, equal parts confused and concerned. He saw the way her hand inched towards her thigh and assumed she probably brought a gun just in case.

There was some gentle murmuring from the people around them and a couple of people even approached the window to see what was going on.

Barry was walking towards the window, Patty close behind, when they were suddenly plunged into darkness.

One woman screamed in shock and several more people gasped.

After the initial moment of shock, people began turning on their phone flashlights and looking around.

Because of the storm raging outside, there wasn’t any moonlight and it seemed like all the lights in the surrounding area were out as well.

People started heading for the exits after another moment, causing a massive shift in bodies moving right towards them.

“Everyone!” A feminine voice called out into the darkness, causing most of them to pause completely. “We’ve lost all power to the building and by the looks of it, a large chunk of the city has as well. We’ll have the security team lead everyone downstairs where we have some generators already getting turned on. Please remain calm. We’re also organizing transportation to get everyone out of here. Let’s be as organized as possible about this.”

“That’s Tina McGee.” Barry whispered to her as everyone around them began shuffling towards the staircase where the security team all had large flashlights in hand.

“Wow.” Patty blinked. “You know she worked with Harrison Wells? But then they began having a lot of arguments about ethics and what they wanted the focus to be. They went their separate ways over a decade ago.”

She said all that without breathing and Barry chuckled. “You a big fan?”

Patty nodded. “She’s one of my idols. One of the most powerful and influential women in science. I have her autobiography.”

“I have Harrison Wells’. Too bad things didn’t work out so well for him.” Barry helped lead her to the staircase and together the two of them followed everyone else downstairs. “I wonder how often this happens? Power outages, I mean. They sure do seem prepared.”

Patty nodded. “Probably. I’m sure with all this equipment hooked up most of the day, they have lots of power issues.”

Patty gasped when they reached the lobby with everyone else and looked out the big glass doors. “Would you look at it out there?”

Barry followed her line of sight to the heavy rain outside. The rain was hitting the ground so hard it practically bounced off the concrete. It was more like hail than rain at this point. The lighting was even visibly hitting land in the distance.

The wind was whipping the rain against the windows and soaking everything not covered.

It was almost like hurricane weather.

He couldn’t even imagine what the city must look like right now.

God, the people must be having a hard time getting around in this. He hated to think about all the accidents that happened once the traffic lights went out.

Then it clicked.

_Duh! You have super-speed! Go help them, fool!_

He was still getting used to the fact that he could help people in ways that no one else in the could possibly dream of.

It was irresponsible not to use his powers to help, right?

“Patty, I’m really sorry. I need to go.”

“What?!” Patty grabbed his arm and stopped him in his tracks. “Barry, you can’t be serious. You’ll get struck by lightning, again. And something tells me you may not be so lucky the second time around.”

Oh, she had no idea just how lucky he’d gotten.

He smiled apologetically. “I’ll be okay. I’ll uh, make sure to take lots of cover.”

“You’re _walking_ home? What are you nuts?” Patty was in utter disbelief.

“Yeah. I uh, just remembered that’s I need to attend to an extremely delicate and important task at home. It’s worth braving this storm.”

_Oh my god. That’s your excuse?!_

Patty still didn’t look convinced. “Barry, I really think you should wait-“

“I’ll be fine, promise. Thank you, for tonight. I had a really good time hanging out with you. We should do it again sometime!” He spoke as he jogged away towards the glass doors.

“Yeah. Me too.” Patty sighed, watching him run off.

He was completely soaked by the time he got to the alleyway and ran off towards the city, all the while pulling his homemade mask on.

It wasn’t ideal, and it looked silly as all hell. But it hid his identity and that was the most important thing.

Just another thing to add to his list. He needed something else to wear. This was the third mask he’d burned through because the material just couldn’t handle the high speeds he moved at.

Maybe he should make a list when he got home tonight. He’d been brought up on the idea of always being organized and prepared for anything.

He was treading completely new territory though and it wasn’t like he could just google all the answers to the questions he had.

He came to an abrupt halt at the corner of 3rd and Hewitt, taking in the scene before him.

It was a huge traffic pileup and the entire block was chaos.

Cars were honking at each other, people were yelling and shoving eachother while surveying the damage done to their vehicles, and the CCPD was in the midst of all of it, trying to break up fights and direct people out of there.

Meanwhile, the rain was coming down heavy and the wind was whipping at everything and everyone.

He took a split second to think about it before taking off and super speeding people out of the street.

His first priority was to get people off the streets and away from the lightning that was getting closer and closer. He shuddered to think of what would happen if even a single car was struck by lightning. The whole street and the people on it might pay for it.

He stopped in front of an officer and the older man stuttered. “Y-you, you are real. You’re The Streak! But how-“

“No time for that. What’s the plan right now?”

When the other officer refused to speak up, too busy staring at Barry in shock, another familiar officer gently pushed the first away.

“Right now we’re running on gennies at the precinct and the Captain is coordinating things from there. Our only plan right now is to wait it out. Not much else we can do when it’s the weather.” Joe had his thumbs hooked in the pants of his slacks and even though he was soaked to the bone, he was as professional as ever.

Barry nodded. “Okay. What can I do to help? Where do you need me?”

Joe thought to himself for a moment before taking out his little notepad. “The people at the stadium could use some help. There are several reports of injuries when the blackout hit. Other than that it’s just getting people off the streets. Which I see you already knew was a top priority.”

He gestured around them where the street was now bare and silent except for the other officers who were either taking calls from their cruisers, or reassuring the scared citizens Barry had pushed indoors.

“I’ll head to the stadium now. Thanks, Detective.” He paused right as he was about to speed away again. “Hey, you don’t seem all that surprised by me being here.”

Joe just shrugged. “There has been talk and sightings of you for months now. Also, my daughter is obsessed with getting a scoop on you. She’s talked my ear off enough and shown me plenty of pictures. I may be a traditional kind of cop, but I’m no fool. As long as you’re on our side, they’ll be no problems between us.”

Barry was taken very aback at that onslaught of information. _Iris_ was obsessed with learning more about him? Joe, who was known for being stern and had a “take no shit” kind of attitude, was being downright friendly to him?

It made him feel a little warm inside. He’d always admired the West family from afar. Joe and Iris seemed extremely close and both of them were very kind to him.

Even if he’d only seen Iris a couple times since high school. Seems life had just taken them in very different directions.

Even in school, when Barry was bullied by Tony Woodward, she’d stand up for him.

And, ya know, she was ridiculously beautiful.

The idea of her wanting to know more about _him_ , even if it was just as The Streak, sent a thrum of excitement right through him.

“Of course, Detective. I won’t let you down.” Barry nodded at the older man, a smile making its way onto his face.

“Hmm.” Joe nodded back before turning back towards the other cop who was still staring at Barry like he was a ghost. 

He caught Joe sneaking a glance at him as he ran off, and Barry smiled even wider to himself.

If Joe West believed in him, it was only a matter of time before the other officers at CCPD did too.

Maybe the city would learn to embrace him one day too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until next time! :)


	3. Episode 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Hope you all enjoy this next chapter, the ball starts rolling a little more in this one :)  
> Also, trigger warning for a VERY brief description of violence towards the end. It’s only one sentence, but I thought I’d let you all know.  
> Enjoy!

The power had been restored to Central City sometime in the middle of the night.

Barry himself had even been asleep when suddenly all the lights in his bedroom flicked on at once and his TV in the living room began blaring something on channel 52 news.

Patty had texted him last night to make sure he’d gotten home okay since he’d just run off into the storm, probably worrying the hell out of her.

He felt guilty, but then he remembered _why_ he’d left her standing there in the crowd and that guilt subsided some.

Last night had been _very_ successful and he was proud to say he hadn’t mucked anything up even once.

Joe had trusted him enough to go out there and take care of business, it was nice to have someone who believed him.

And then he’d said Iris was hellbent on learning more about him, maybe even trying to get an interview.

Which made him kind of giddy.

Iris had just gotten a job at CCPN, which he’d learned while at the station, since Iris brought Joe breakfast almost every morning.

He’d just caught the tail end of her conversation with a rookie cop and filed that information away for later.

It’s not like he was a stalker or anything, but it never hurt to have potential allies in the news force.

And perhaps it didn’t hurt that she was extremely pretty…

_Focus, Barry._

It was his day off and he was currently planning out what he was going to do about this freak weather.

He’d hooked up his laptop and was trying to find a way to track any abnormal weather patterns, but there was only so much a little laptop could do. He gave up after about an hour of no luck.

His only option at this point was to create his own program. Which may be his only option. The only problem there was that this situation was rather time sensitive.

The weather was getting increasingly worse and there was no sign that it was going to stop soon.

Right now it was pouring rain and there was lightning in the distance, as it had been all morning.

Truthfully, he was way in over his head.

He had no idea how to begin to figure out his powers. He was working off a salary that could just get him by with a little extra. No where near enough to buy the necessary equipment to run a more sophisticated operation here.

Deciding to take a break, he got up and made a quick cup of coffee, sipping it and sitting in the chair by his open window, watching the rain drip down the glass.

_What am I supposed to do? Nobody knows I’m The Streak, I’m alone._

Barry rubbed his face, frustrated that he couldn’t figure out a solution.

He was flicking through his phone when a name suddenly popped up on the caller ID.

**_Cpt Frye_ **

_Why was he calling?_

“Hello?” Barry answered, placing his cup on the side table.

“Hey, kiddo. How’s it going?”

Barry paused, “Uh, good. Are _you_ okay? You usually don’t call me this early in the morning. Thought you’d still be asleep.”

“Oh yeah.” He could practically hear the other man shrug. “I’ve just been keeping track of Central City news since the blackout. You never called, are you okay, son?”

Barry felt guilt gnaw at his stomach. He really should have called him. He’d just been so busy since all this started happening.

“Yeah, I’m good, Daryl. How’s Coast City? You enjoy the beach?” He changed the subject quickly. It had always been difficult to talk to his foster father about things and this was no exception.

Things had been rocky with them at first. Barry, being an emotional volatile eleven-year who just watched his father get arrested and his mother murdered, and Daryl Frye, being a middle-aged man who just so happened to be one of the cops working the case of Nora Allen’s murder.

Henry and Nora Allen had been beloved citizens of the community. Henry was a doctor that had a great rapport with his patients and Nora was a real estate agent who was as kind as she was good at her job.

The loss had devastated everyone else too, including Daryl who felt like it was his responsibility as the lead detective to take care of Barry after that.

He fought pretty hard for custody and in the end the courts decided it was best that he stayed where it was familiar.

“-Son?”

Barry startled, remembering that he was on the phone. “Sorry, Daryl. What did you say?”

“I just the beach has been nice. This old man is a lot tanner than you remember. I do miss being on the force though.”

Daryl was a retired police officer who had worked his way up to police Captain at the end of his career.

Now he lived in Coast City in a tiny little flat made for one.

Barry chuckled, but it felt hollow.

There was a brief pause, “Are you sure you’re okay?” Daryl asked. “Have things been okay since they reinstated you at CCPD?”

“Do you think Central City will ever go back to normal? I mean, Star Labs is so run down and burnt up, it’s left this… ugly, gapping hole in the city. I don’t know if we’ll ever be the same.”

It wasn’t just Star Labs that had a gapping hole either.

“I don’t know if I ever will be. August… He’s just gone. My only sort of friend at the precinct is gone. I feel so lost, Daryl.” Barry traced the rim of his cup, sighing.

There was a bit of an awkward silence for a moment and Barry knew that Daryl never was great at the whole emotional-heart-to-heart aspect of taking care of a kid.

“You’ll find your way, Barry. You’ve always been someone who only needed a couple friends. You pick good ones, loyal ones, and you stick with them. You just have to find more like that. And you will. You just attract them.”

Barry nodded. “Thanks, Daryl. I hope you’re right.”

“And as for the city, that’ll just take more time. Harrison Wells did quite a number on Central City. Too bad he’s holed up in his mansion.” Daryl scoffed, he never did like Wells.

And then his stomach jolted and his eyes drifted onto one of the books that was lying half-hazardly on the coffee table.

There were a couple, but this one caught his eye because of the man on the cover.

Harrison Wells.

Daryl’s words jump started the thought in his head and he began thinking.

Harrison Wells had to know something about all this, right? He created the particle accelerator after all. Maybe he’d be of some help. Hell, maybe he’d even agree to lend Barry some equipment and a place to house it all.

Maybe he could just sneak past security and talk to him. It’s not he wanted to hurt the man, surely he’d understand Barry breaking in because he needed help.

The thought was scary. But the idea of breaking into a millionaires’ home was a lot less scary with super-speed.

“Hey Daryl? I gotta go. You just gave me an idea for something.”

“Oh! Okay!” Daryl sounded pleased with himself. “Well in that case, I’ll call you later, yeah?”

Barry nodded quickly. “Of course. Thanks!”

When Daryl hung up, Barry took a deep breath before he grit his teeth and chugged the rest of his coffee, wincing as it scalded his throat.

After a run through the shower and a quick change of clothes, he was dressed in his makeshift suit.

“This is the right thing to do. You’re in over your head. You need a professionals help.” He reminded himself, trying to rid his belly of the intense nerves as he took off running towards the well-known house of Harrison Wells.

Wells was an idol of his. Maybe less show after the explosion and then his immediate move into hiding. If Wells had reintegrated himself with the people, they might be on better terms right now.

Instead, he ran and hid. Letting his scientific genius go to waste and allowing the city he once tried to help, destroy itself from the inside.

It was tragic and Barry truly felt for the older man. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to be on the precipice of such scientific greatness, only to have to come crashing down and destroy so many lives.

But still. He should have helped more in the relief efforts after the explosion and in the months that followed.

He skidded to a halt outside the house (mansion) and looked around. The big gates were locked with a keypad, which was lit up bright green to his right, but there were no people like he expected. Maybe the fence was electrified?

He approached it and hoped to anyone up there that the keypad didn’t lock or alert security after so many tries. Or ya know, electrocuted him. Because he was about to use super-speed on it.

He was sure he’d been through about a hundred passcodes before the thing finally beeped and the gate audibly unlocked.

That seemed way too easy.

Taking a deep breath and blowing out his lips, he ran up to the house and knocked on the big brown door.

There was silence for a moment before an intercom to his left crackled to life.

“Who are you and how did you get through my gate?”

The voice was scratchy sounding but it was unmistakably Harrison Wells. Barry had watched enough of his interviews and conferences to know that.

“I need your help. Please. You’re the only person that can help me.”

Harrison spoke again, this time sounding irritated. “Look, I don’t know who you are but you don’t just walk up to someone else’s home, bang on their door, and demand their help. Get off my property before I call the police.”

Though his words genuinely scared Barry, he continued to press. “Please, Dr. Wells. If you’d just let me explain. I-“ he paused for a second, debating on whether or not he should say it. “I was affected by your particle accelerator. I have… abilities now.”

There was a long stretch of silence before Harrison spoke again, much less brash. “I’ll buzz you in.”

Barry watched as the door made an audible clicking noise and it presumably unlocked.

He peeked his head through the doorway and was met the sight of an long hallway. To the left and right were several statues, the whole room was modern and almost had a sterile feeling to it.

“Hello?” He spoke, his voice echoing. He adjusted his mask and stepped onto the cold, clean, linoleum floor.

“In the foyer. Down the hall and to your left.” Harrison’s voice travelled down the hall towards him.

He stepped cautiously, feeling creeped out by the giant house where every step he made echoed.

He peered around the corner and was met with the startling sight of Harrison Wells, staring at him from across the room.

Wells was sitting in his wheelchair, a glass of something (whiskey, maybe?) on a table in front of him with a book lying next to that.

“Do I get to know you’re name? Or are you going to wear that silly mask while we talk? You don’t need to protect your identity from me.”

Barry kept the mask on, stepping closer to the older man. “Dr. Wells, please. I just need your help. I need someone or something to help me understand my powers.”

Wells didn’t seem to mind that Barry ignored his first comment, a little half-smirk on his face. “And you thought I could help?”

“You are the one that created the particle accelerator. I figure if anyone knows something, it’s you.” Barry sat down in the chair across from Wells, noticing the copious amounts of bookcases around them.

Wells adjusted his glasses. “I wouldn’t be much help now.” The smirk was gone from his face now. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly the most popular person in town these days.”

Wells finished off his drink, placing the cup down on the table a little too forcefully.

Barry nodded, solemnly. He knew about the slander the newspaper constantly printed about him. The hatred for him that lived in a lot of people because of what happened that night.

“I was in a coma. For nine months. And when I woke up-“ Barry stood, running around the house until he found the liquor cabinet and grabbing the first bottle he could find.

He poured Wells another glass all before the older man could blink twice.

Wells looked up at Barry, and then down at his glass.

“I’m fast now.” He threw his arms up.

“Interesting.” Wells looked him up and down, sitting forward a little in his chair. “When did you start experiencing this ability?”

“A few hours after I woke up from my coma.” Barry answered, sitting back down. “So will you help me?”

Wells fell back against the back of his chair. “I can’t. I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do for you.”

“What do you mean?” Barry was feeling a little frustrated now. “You’re Harrison Wells! World-renowned scientist. What can’t you do?”

The older man slammed his hand down on the table, Barry’s words sparking some kind of anger within him.

“Look at me! I’m in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down! I’m a social pariah! Everything I’ve done, everything I’ve worked for, is gone! I’ve destroyed countess lives! My life’s work; gone. Dead. I have nothing to give you!” His shouts echoed throughout the halls of his lonely mansion.

Barry felt his own anger spark at being shouted at like that. “So what, you’re just going to leave everyone in this city to suffer for your mistakes? You’re not going to try and help rebuild the city that you once said gave you life?!”

Wells scoffed. “This city is dead. Look at the crime rates. Look at the deterioration of this once beautiful city. No one can help it now. Least of all me.”

“You’re a coward.” Barry shook his head, disappointed running through his veins as he looked at the man in front of him.

_The higher they rise, the harder they fall, right?_

Wells laughed. “Finally, we agree on something.”

Barry breathed heavily, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

_Always be kinder than necessary_

His mom always used to tell him that. And those words still rung true.

Wells clearly hated himself. Fueling that hatred wouldn’t help anyone here.

So he tried a softer approach, lowering his voice.

“After all the lives that have changed because of your particle accelerator, you really feel no obligation to them? You don’t feel like you need to help people? _I_ can do it. I can be the one out there. You don’t have to even leave this place. I just need your help to figure this all out. Please Dr. Wells.”

Wells looked away, taking his glasses off and rubbing his eyes. “I can’t.” He whispered brokenly.

“Dr. Wells.” Barry begged.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I can’t get back into it only to fail again. I’ve had enough failure to last a lifetime.” Wells looked out at the window. “I failed my wife. Everything she worked for is gone.”

Barry’s felt sympathy mix in with his upset.

“I’m sorry. I just can’t. I wish I could be braver. But I can’t face what I did. Not yet.”

Barry felt all his disappointed wash to the surface. He realized this wasn’t going anywhere. All he was going was causing this broken man more pain.

“I- I’m sorry too, Dr. Wells.” He got up to leave. “But you can redeem yourself. People will see that you’re trying and things will get better. I know it will.” Barry pushed the chair in, smiling sadly at him. “You just have to take that first leap.”

Barry was halfway out the doorway when Wells spoke up. “I can’t help you. But I know who can.”

Barry pushed off the doorway and stood in front of Wells this time, crossing his arms. “Who?”

The older man tucked his hands in his lap. “He used to work for me. Young, brilliant, and he may be able to help you come up with a better suit. That thing your wearing is going to burn up at the speeds you’ll be reaching soon.”

“Oh, it already has been burning up. This is the third set of clothes I’ve gone through. What’s this guys’ name?”

“Cisco Ramon. He works at Mercury Labs. You’ll be able to find him there. I can’t guarantee he’ll help you, but he’s your best bet. I wish I could do more. Really.”

Barry nodded. “It’s okay, that helps a lot. Thanks.”

Wells nodded. “Be careful out there, Mister Allen. If you keep going out there and showing your powers, lots more will follow. It’s only a matter of time.”

“How did you-?”

“Know your name? It wasn’t hard to deduce. You get out of your coma and suddenly The Streak appears. I kept tabs on all the people affected by my accelerator.”

Barry gulped and nodded. “Thanks for the tip, Dr. Wells. I’m sorry for bothering you.”

“Good luck.” Wells tipped his head, watching Barry closely before he super-sped out the door.

He shut the doors behind him and sighed.

Well, it wasn’t exactly what he came here for. But at least it was another idea. He could’ve walked away with nothing.

As he approached the gates at normal speed, he heard before he saw a crowd of people outside.

They looked like reporters, there were cameras and badges and notepads all out. There were also dozens and dozens of umbrella’s shielding people from the rain.

Lots of chatter and recording going on. It seemed a little manic too, like something big was happening.

It had to be, considering they were all crowding around the gates of a man who barely ever left the property.

And then he spotted a familiar face amongst the crowd.

He super-sped off the property and changed out of his makeshift suit.

He’d visit Cisco for his help later. Right now he needed to figure out what was going on.

He fixed the collar of his jacket, pulling his hood over his head and swinging his bag around his shoulder.

It took him several (speedster) seconds of debate and trying to fight his internal shyness before he pressed on towards the crowd.

“Iris!” He called to the woman on the edge of the crowd.

She turned at her name being called. “Barry?”

He jogged towards her, jerking his head towards the crowd. “Hey, I know we haven’t really talked at all, but you’re the only person I know here. What’s going on?”

Iris looked at him curiously. “Don’t you know? It’s the talk of the station.”

“I have the day off. I haven’t been to the station.” Barry supplied. “So what happened?”

“First of all, you’re getting soaked.” She chuckled, tugging him under her umbrella.

He smiled shyly, looking down at her and feeling his stomach roll at their closeness.

“There was a murder, the witness claimed it was someone with powers. They also said he had a message, blaming Harrison Wells and saying he was coming for him next.” Iris spoke quietly, out of earshot of the other reporters around her.

Barry’s blood ran cold.

Wells was right. The accelerator had opened the floodgates, meta humans were just going to keep coming.

And now someone had been murdered.

“Who was murdered?” Barry asked, voice sounding as spooked as he felt.

Iris hung her head. “My dads old partner. Fred Chyre. He was found with bruises all over him and his-“ she gulped a little. “His skull bashed in.”

Barry shuddered, feeling his entire body go numb.

He remembered Fred around the precinct. He was always rather brash and sarcastic, but he was a good detective and a good man.

“Barry, I’m-“ Iris placed a hand on his arm and he felt the warm radiate from her hand. “I’m sorry. I know it’s hard to lose a coworker like that. So suddenly.”

Barry managed a small smile. “Thanks, Iris.” He sighed. “Guess I should probably get to the precinct. They’ll need me in the lab.”

“You want a ride? I think this is kind of hopeless. He won’t come out to get groceries anymore, let alone talk to the press.”

Barry shook his head. “No, I couldn’t ask that of you.”

“Eh. People are already leaving anyways. Weather is getting worse too. C’mon, you shouldn’t be walking to a bus stop in the rain.” She tugged on his sleeve. “I insist.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with taking an almost stranger in your car with a murderer on the loose?” He half-joked, but he was also being kind of serious.

Iris laughed, tugging him along with her. “You’re too sweet to be a murderer, Barry. Dad talks enough about you for me to know that. I trust you.”

“Really?” Barry asked breathlessly, following her down the street to her car. A cute little blue Kia car.

“Don’t act so surprised. You know, after we literally ran into each other at the station, I started thinking about you. Then I found your picture in our high school yearbook and all the memories came flooding back.” Iris smiled, unlocking her car.

They both hurried in, already damp from their brief stint in the rain.

Barry cleared his throat, warming his hands when she turned on the car. “What memories were those?”

“Tony Woodward used to bully you. All through school. He’d physically beat you up. But you never hurt him back. You ran. Rather than stoop to his level, you took the high road. You’ve always been a good person, Barry. I have no reason to doubt that now.”

She smiled shyly at him as she buckled her seat.

“You defended me a couple times, you know. It’s partly why I remembered you so well. No one else ever did that.”

Iris blushed. “Well I’m glad I remembered you. We could all use more friends in a city that’s losing its way like this.”

“Yeah.” Barry smiled. Despite the crappy situation they were in, he felt a twinge of happiness. “Friends sounds really nice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since it’s the day before Christmas Eve, I figured now would be the best time to release the next chapter.  
> So, whatever you celebrate, Happy Holidays! Stay safe out there :)  
> Until next time!


	4. Episode 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy the new chapter! :)

After a pleasant car ride across town, Barry and Iris pulled up to CCPD in about twenty minutes.

She put the car in park and they sat there for a moment.

Barry struggled to find the words for a moment, playing with his hands.

“You wanna come inside?” Barry asked quickly, resisting the urge to squeeze his eyes shut.

_That sounded super forward and not at all something you’d ask someone you’ve barely spoken a word to since high school. God, were you raised in a barn?_

“To do what?” She asked kindly, placing a hand on his nervously bouncing leg.

Barry smiled at her, grateful that she noticed his nervousness and didn’t call him out on it. Like he really needed to embarrass himself even more in front of someone so sweet and pretty.

“I’m sorry. Sometimes my mouth and brain don’t work at the same speed. I meant to ask if you want to come upstairs to my lab. Maybe we could, I dunno, pick each others’ brains about the case? You scratch my back, I scratch yours, right?”

Iris giggled. “Yeah. That sounds good. Are you sure you want to break the rules like that? Captain Singh finds out you’ve knowingly had a reporter in the precinct for longer than ten minutes, he’ll have a conniption.”

Barry shrugged. “It’s worth it.”

Iris shook her head, unbuckling her seatbelt. “You are very cute, Barry Allen. Okay. I’ll come up there with you. I’d love to hear what a forensic scientist has to hear about the situation.”

He mentally fist-bumped himself for actually plucking up the courage to ask her.

Barry rushed around to Iris’ side of the car, where she was popping out her umbrella.

They knocked shoulders as they walked up the steps together, desperate to stay as dry as possible.

His hair was damp and he was sure it was sticking up in places.

Iris shook off her umbrella and they opened the door to be met with chaos.

Officers running around everywhere, people talking loudly, what looked like regular citizens regaling the officers with stories.

“What’s going on?” Iris asked, eyebrows furrowed as she looked around the busy precinct.

Barry lightly grabbed her arm and led her up the stairs to his lab. “Singh probably put out a request for any tips or information on whoever killed Detective Chyre. That tends to bring the uh, animated people out of hiding. Those that want attention and tell outlandish stories.”

“Oh.” Iris nodded in understanding. “Who do you think did it?”

Barry gestured for her to step in the lab first before he shut the door.

“Honestly, I’m not sure. From what you said, hearing he was bludgeoned to death and bruised everywhere… It’s hard to say. On the one hand, it could be a routine psychopath. But with all this feel weather that’s been happening, I’m not so sure anymore.”

Iris bit her lip hard and Barry sensed that she wanted to say something.

But then they were interrupted by the door to his lab sliding open.

“Iris!” Joe called, worry in his eyes and the tone of his voice. “Thank god.”

“Dad!” Iris looked surprised. “How did you know I was here?”

Joe jerked his thumb towards the door. “Jensen told me he saw you come here. He was wondering what you were doing with Barry Allen. Whose supposed to be on his day off today. And I was worried. There’s a killer on the loose and you go straight to the house of the man who’s his next target?”

“It’s my job, dad.” Iris defended. “Besides, we left before anything actually happened. Swear.”

“We?” Joe looked over at Barry now, as if just realising it was _this_ Barry that had been with his daughter. “What were you doing at Wells’ place, Allen?”

Iris turned to him, just as curious as her father and realising that she didn’t even know why he’d been there.

Barry reddened at the attention of both eyes on him. “Oh uh, I was walking around nearby and heard the commotion. I’ve been doing that on my days off. Just… trying to re-familiarize myself with everything that changed while I was in a coma.”

_Not a bad cover-up._

Iris smiled at him and Joe looked a little weary. “Alright. What are you two doing here then? Together?” He raised an eyebrow.

Barry glanced at Iris, hoping she could come up with a believable excuse. The way Joe was looking at him made him nervous.

“When he got there we just started talking and I offered him a ride here once he heard what happened to Chyre. I remembered him from the station the other day.” Iris lied perfectly.

Joe still squinted his eyes at Barry but nodded. “Okay. Fair enough. I just wanted to check on you. We still good for lunch at one o’clock?”

Iris nodded, smiling brightly for her fathers’ benefit. “Of course dad. I’ll drive today and it’ll be my treat.”

Joe smiled and kissed her head. “Alright baby girl, stay out of trouble until then. Allen, watch yourself.” He winked to show Barry he wasn’t seriously mad at him.

Barry managed a smile, still feeling like he was treading on thin ice.

The one thing _everyone_ at the station knew? You never messed with Joe West’s’ daughter. She was more important to him than anything else in the universe.

He turned and left, allowing Barry to let out a long breath.

Iris laughed at the spooked look on his face, making him look up and actually smile himself.

“Why do I feel like I was just scolded by my dad?” Barry laughed, leaning back in his chair.

Iris sat across from him. “He kind of has that effect on everyone. But like I said, he seems to like you. If you were anyone else, he’d have for sure given you the third degree about why you’re with me.”

A little jolt of pride settled itself in Barry’s belly.

“So,” Iris brought her bag up to the table, opening it up and pulling out her laptop. “We need to start compiling all our information together. I’ll tell you what I know, and I expect you to tell me what you know once you guys get the evidence analyzed. Deal?”

Barry switched chairs to sit next to her, getting a better look at her laptop. He knew _technically_ he wasn’t allowed to tell others about an investigation, especially not a reporter. But Iris was different, and she also had information he’d need. It was only fair, right?

“Deal.”

They spent the next couple of hours going over information. Barry made a pot of coffee and after those couple of hours, they’d run out of things to say about the case and began talking about other things.

“-Yep. The entire fraternity got to see me hurl all over their sorority sister. Suffice it to say, I didn’t make the cut. Guess that was when I learned I’m kind of a lightweight.”

Iris was in tears of laughter at his story as he talked about some of his college experiences.

“Did you ever go for any sororities?” Barry asked, sipping his third cup of coffee that morning.

Iris shook her head. “Nah, that wasn’t really my scene. I was more for house parties hosted by close friends. It never got to the level of frat and sorority parties though.”

“Probably for the best.” Barry laughed. “My friend August used to drag me all over to those parties. Said he wanted me to ‘have the real college experience’.”

“Sounds like a good friend.” Iris smiled, “So long as he never ditched you for pretty girls.”

“Oh no, he did sometimes.” Barry recalled several times that had indeed happened. “But he always made sure I was with someone trustworthy or already ready to go home. I miss him a lot.”

Iris nodded sympathetically, “What… What happened to him?”

Barry shrugged. “No one really knows. He had left work the day of the particle accelerator explosion and just never came back. No sign of him anywhere, not even at his old apartment. And I looked for him. Hard.”

“I’m sorry, Barry. That must’ve been really scary for you. To come out of coma to find people you cared about just gone.” She gripped his wrist tenderly, trying to show her sympathy and support of him. “I hope there were people there for you when you woke up.”

“Thanks, Iris. You’re-“

“Barry, I- Oh.”

He and Iris both turned their heads quickly at the sound of new voice entering the room.

Patty blinked at the two of them, eyes zeroing in on where Iris’s fingers were clamped around Barry’s wrist loosely.

“Patty, hey.” Barry waved with his free hand, disappointed when Iris quickly snatched her hand back.

Patty cleared her throat, eyes downcast. “I was just going to ask if you wanted to grab a bite to eat, but I can see you’re busy. I’m sorry.”

“No! It’s fine.” Iris stood up, grabbing her jacket and slipping her arms through the holes. “I didn’t realize it was so late, I’m having lunch with my dad at one, so I’d better get going.”

Barry watched helplessly as Iris gathered her things. “Uh, Barry, why don’t I give you my number so we can… finish things up later?”

He nodded eagerly, pulling out his phone and passing it to her, all the while Patty nervously wrung her hands awkwardly by the door.

Iris finished up and handed Barry back his phone. “It was great to talk to Barry. I’ll see you around.”

They smiled at each other for a moment before Iris headed for the door, nodding politely at Patty on her way out.

“I really am sorry for interrupting.” Patty stepped further into the room.

Barry waved her off. “It’s fine, Patty. She really did have to go have lunch with Joe.”

She nodded, biting her lip. “I also wanted to see if you were okay. You left pretty abruptly and your text was pretty short.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I’ve just been kinda busy. And now with this murder… Anyways, I’m sorry.” Barry tucked away the pieces of paper with the information Iris had divulged.

“No need to be sorry. I was just worried. So, lunch?”

He didn’t have any other plans right now so he nodded in agreement. “Sure. You think about what you want to eat while I clean things up around here. If Singh walks in on another pigsty in here, I’ll get yelled at for sure…”

-

Barry checked his watch, rushing down the sidewalk and nearly crashing into a bystander. “Sorry.” He muttered as he approached the large building, looking up at it.

After lunch with Patty, she headed back to the station for work and Barry went back to his apartment.

He put up Iris’ info on the detective board in his bedroom and went about planning his next move.

First though, he had to go to Cisco Ramon and ask for his help. If nothing else, the man would hopefully be able to help him come up with a better suit. Which would certainly solve one problem.

He remembered Cisco from the night at Mercury Labs and recalled that he had been very friendly and kind.

So he called Mercury Labs and asked if Cisco Ramon was there.

The woman who answered was very vague and probably weary about giving out the whereabouts of one of her colleagues, but eventually she told him that Cisco was working a late shift tonight if he wanted to try and talk to him in person.

He’d have to go through security, because these days, who knows what kind of crazy act someone could commit.

The city was dying, that was no secret. And people were getting desperate and scared.

After he was sufficiently patted down by security and given the okay to go inside, he opened the familiar glass doors and headed straight for the front desk.

“Hi, can I help you sir?” The elderly woman asked, momentarily pausing her typing.

Barry smiled politely, “Yeah, I was the guy over the phone a few hours ago. I really need to speak to Cisco Ramon. It’s important.”

“Oh. Well, let me call up to the lab and see if Mr. Ramon is willing to come down and speak to you. I’m sorry, we don’t allow civilians up in the lab unless it’s a showcasing night.”

She rolled away slightly and ran her finger down a list of names, finding Cisco’s name and which lab he was working in. “It’ll just be a moment. What’s your name?”

“Oh, uh, Barry Allen. We spoke at the last showcase.” He drummed his fingers on the counter and looked around at the lobby while she spoke quietly on the phone a little ways away.

After about a minute, she thanked whoever was on the other end and hung up.

“Mr. Allen?” She asked, causing his attention to return to her. “Mr. Ramon will be down in a few minutes. You can wait in the seating area over there.”

She pointed to her left, where several plushy-looking grey couches sat. “Thank you.” Barry nodded his head towards her and sat down.

His leg shook anxiously as he waited for what felt like hours. Until finally, the elevator dinged and out stepped Cisco.

He was dressed similar to that night, except he wore a lab coat instead of a blazer over a t-shirt.

Barry stood up and Cisco turned towards him, looking both curious and nervous.

“You’re the one that wants to talk?” Cisco asked as a greeting. “Is it about the projects? Because I’m really sorry but I can’t just discuss them with complete strangers.

Barry quickly shook his head. “No, it’s not about the projects you’re working on. I just… I really need your help.”

Cisco looked more confused. “What makes you think I can help you with whatever it is?”

“Someone else told me you might be able to help me.” Barry lowered his voice, seeing as the elderly woman was clearly trying to listen in.

Cisco still looked weary. “Alright. What’s the problem?”

“Look,” Barry glanced around, noting that the guards were also watching them. “Could we go somewhere more private to talk? I’m not comfortable saying it right here.”

Cisco nodded, looking back at the elderly woman who quickly glanced away. “We can go into one of the empty conference rooms down here. I have an access card. You aren’t allowed upstairs, sorry.”

“It’s okay. That’ll be fine.” Barry let Cisco lead them both past the elevators and into a narrow hallway that split off into lots of other hallways and rooms.

They neared the end of the corridor when Cisco stopped and turned to his right, sliding his keycard and inserting a passcode. “This should be isolated enough. C’mon.”

He flicked the light on and Barry shut the door behind them, making sure it was securely locked. “Can anybody hear us?”

“Shouldn’t be able to. These rooms were made for private meetings. Usually with investors and stuff. So, tell me what’s up and why you need _me_.” Cisco plopped into a seat and crossed his arms, facing Barry.

“Okay. Here goes.” Barry took a deep breath before taking off and running across the room, tucking in all the chairs and closing all the blinds as he went.

He skidded slightly to halt and Cisco shot up out of his chair, causing the chair to fly backwards into the wall.

“What the-“ His eyes were wide, with excitement or fear Barry wasn’t sure. “You have-“

“Super speed. Yeah.” Barry said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “And I kinda visited, or broke into, Harrison Wells’ place this morning asking for help. He wasn’t… ready to get back into it. So he told me to come see you.”

Some of the excitement dimmed in Cisco’s eyes. “Yeah. That sounds like Dr. Wells. So these- your powers, I mean, did you get them from the particle accelerator explosion?”

“Yep. I was in a coma for nine months and then one day I just woke up and had powers. I guess that’s the only thing that kept me alive.” He answered, watching as Cisco began pacing.

“So the dark matter fused with you on a cellular level and gave you super speed? What happened, what were you doing when the accelerator went off?” Cisco asked, a little more enthusiastic now.

“I was in my lab at CCPD. The crime lab. I was just working on stuff and when I went to close up the ceiling window to stop the rain from getting in, I got struck by lightning. I was out cold.”

“That’s… Wow. That’s incredible. Awful that you got struck by lightning of course, but it gave you powers! Whoa, I need to sit down.” Cisco was getting overly excited and nearly panting.

“So, so, what do you need me for?” Cisco asked once he’d gotten some oxygen to his brain.

“I need a suit.” Barry explained. “I’ve been burning through all the clothes and masks I’ve been using. I was hoping you or Dr. Wells could help me find materials more suited to running at high speeds.”

“Oh- Oh! You’re him!” Cisco looked like a lightbulb just went off in his head. “You’re The Streak! That mysterious red and yellow blur that people have been talking about.”

“Yeah, that’s me. Surprise.”

“So why are you trusting me with this secret? You don’t even know me.” Cisco was back to being confused.

“Harrison Wells trusts you. And I’m honestly really lost and desperate for some kind of help. Even just getting a working suit, I can stop worrying about revealing my identity to the wrong person. One less thing on my mind.” Barry responded, watching Cisco nod.

“So you like, fight crime and stuff?”

“I do my best, yeah. No one else really knows and I don’t have a lot of friends, so it’s mostly just me blundering my way through things.”

Cisco’s face changed at Barry’s words. “Look man, I… I’ll help you get some materials but that’s it. I can’t get involved in a bunch of crime fighting stuff.”

Barry’s eyebrows furrowed. Cisco absolutely seemed like the type of person who would get excited about something like this and want to be a part of it.

But now Cisco seemed standoffish, like Barry’s words sparked something in him.

“Why not? You’d just be like… a consult of sorts. You wouldn’t have to go out into the field or anything.” Barry tried.

Cisco just shook his head. “I’m sorry. I already lost my two best friends because of this accelerator. And my apartment and my dream job. This thing has taken too much away from me.”

“That’s what Dr. Wells said too.” Barry said sadly.

Cisco shook his head. “Yeah, well he doesn’t even know the half of it.” He snapped. “He‘a up there in his big cushy mansion. Me? I lost my apartment because I couldn’t pay rent. I had to move back in with my parents. It took me seven months to get this job and even then I think McGee only hired me to get one up on Wells. They’re always trying to take each others’ scientists. I’m just caught in the middle of their rivalry. But what was I going to do? Turn down the only person willing to give me a job after I helped destroy the city?!”

Barry gulped at his outburst. At some point during his speech, Cisco had begun pacing around the table, not even looking at Barry.

He knew it wouldn’t be easy to convince anyone to help, he just didn’t count on them being this angry and bitter about what happened.

He supposed anyone would be if they’d lost everything banking on the success of something that ended up nearly destroying a whole city.

A lot of guilt and shame, probably. And he had no doubt it was hard for Cisco to even find _this_ job, even with all the qualifications someone had, employers would see who he was and get upset immediately.

“I’m sorry, Cisco. I didn’t mean to open up old wounds. I just thought… I dunno. I thought maybe you’d be the type of person who would be ecstatic about this kind of thing. I’m really sorry.” Barry spoke low to try and calm the other man down.

Cisco finally looked back up at him and let out a shuddering breath. “It’s not your fault. I’m not the same since the accelerator. Before it all happened, I probably would be excited to help. But now I just can’t. I-“ Cisco took another deep breath. “I already have experience working with someone to try and control their powers. I can’t go through losing a friend like that again. It almost destroyed me.”

Barry was stunned at this revelation. He hadn’t heard of any other metahuman sightings before he woke up from his coma. So who did Cisco help before?

He opened his mouth to ask just that but Cisco interrupted him, putting a hand up. “I don’t want to talk about it. I’m sorry. This is already making me too upset, I can’t get involved. Please try to understand. It’s best if we all stay out of it anyways. We’re the reason you’re like this. You don’t want us trying to fix it too.”

Cisco seemed to have already talked himself out of it and Barry deflated. Another failure.

“Right.” He sighed. “I’m sorry I bothered you. Just please promise me you won’t tell anyone about me. Please. I can’t have other people knowing.”

Cisco nodded, face sad. “I promise. I would never put someone in harms way like that. Not intentionally. I’m sorry I can’t really help you. But if you want a suggestion, I would go for some kind of elastic cotton woven fabric. It’ll give you easier mobility. I’m sure you could find a place online that sells some.”

“Thanks, Cisco.” He reached forward to shake the other mans hand. “I’m sorry for everything that has happened to you. I hope things get better, I really do.”

Cisco blinked at him and shook his hand back, his expression hard to decipher, “Yeah, man. You too.” He paused, “Anyways, I should get back to work. Good luck.”

He hurried out of the room, probably feeling a whirl of emotions right now, if his conflicted face was anything to go by.

Barry groaned and plopped himself in the chair, burying his face in his hands. Things really weren’t going his way this week.

“So, you’re The Streak, huh?”

Barry snapped his head up, shock reverberating through his body at the new, drawling voice that appeared suddenly from the doorway.

Well, shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone had a great holiday and hope you have an even more wonderful New Years Eve. Let’s make 2021 a much better year! :D  
> Until next time!


	5. Episode 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple more characters added to this story and therefore added to the tags.  
> Hope you all enjoy!!! :)

_“So, you’re The Streak, huh?”_

Barry sat there, at a loss for words as he looked up the man who was smiling down at him. It wasn’t quite a friendly smile, but it was more of a smirk.

And Barry wanted to throw up. This was not his plan. His plan was not for three people to suddenly know his identity all in one day.

God, he was really mucking all this up.

“Are you just going to sit there gaping at me?” The man chuckled, pushing off the door.

Barry finally found his words after a moment, shaking his head. “Who- I mean, why-?”

“I’m kind of in charge of Cisco, since he’s so new here. When I heard he was coming downstairs to talk to some stranger, well, naturally my curiosity was piqued and I had to come listen for myself.”

“So you just decided to eavesdrop and butt into a conversation that had nothing to do with you?” Barry asked, irritation lacing his tone.

The audacity of this man?!

The man in question just shrugged, shutting the door behind him. He didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact that he just invaded someone else’s privacy. In fact, he seemed proud of it.

“Cool your jets, speedy. I can practically see the steam wafting from your ears.” He rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I’m going to sell this story to the press.”

Barry raised an eyebrow. “Then what do you want from me?”

“I want to help you.” The man said simply.

A jolt of hope and confusion ignited in his chest. “Really? Why would you want to help me?”

The other man walked to the window and peaked out the blinds, his other hand resting behind his back. “Because I know what it’s like to be burned by Harrison Wells. To be cast aside by him for his own selfish reasons.”

Barry blinked in surprise. “You used to work for Harrison Wells too?”

The man nodded, pushing his glasses up his nose as he turned to Barry. “Yes. Almost a year ago, before the accelerator even went off. He fired me when I questioned his work and how it was too early to give the project the green light. Said if I didn’t believe in the project, I shouldn’t be there. Then he replaced me. With _Cisco.”_ He said the name like it was a curse and Barry finally understood why this man was so hostile to Cisco the other night.

Not that it made his rudeness right, but at least he understood it now.

“Tina took me under her wing after that.” He continued, “Cisco was right about one thing though, we’re all just caught in their bitter rivalry. Sure, maybe Tina hired us because we’re good at what we do. But we also have a leg up because we used to work for her competition. Just another slap in his face, I suppose.”

Barry felt bad for both of them. He didn’t fully know this mans intentions nor his true personality, but both he and Cisco seemed like people who just wanted to make a difference. And to be jerked around by people who are bitter and want to one-up the other was pretty shitty.

“So how can you help me?” Barry asked curiously, noticing that he was finished saying whatever he had to say.

“Well for starters, I can get you the material. Shouldn’t be that hard to lie and order it through Mercury Labs under the pretense of needing it for a project. These suckers will believe anything. And half of them don’t understand what I’m talking about most of the time.”

Barry still didn’t love the harshness or biting edge of condescension and sarcasm surrounding this man. And the fact that he’d eavesdropped on him and discovered Barry’s identity annoyed him, but he _was_ willing to help him. And beggars can’t be choosers, right?

“Okay. And what do you want in exchange for helping me?” Barry asked.

“I want in on your little operation. I think we can help each other, Allen. I really do. In more ways that you even realize right now.”

Barry was a little taken aback by the request, but he had to admit that it _would_ be nice to have someone on his side. Someone in a position that could truly help and make a difference, a fellow scientist.

“Alright. It’s a deal, then. But if we’re going to work together, I’ll need to know your name first. Since you eavesdropped and learned my name.”

He noted that the mans badge was conveniently covered by the flap of his lab coat and therefore obstructed Barry’s view of his name.

“Fair enough. I’m Hartley. Hartley Rathaway.”

“Barry Allen.” He responded even though he knew Hartley already knew his name.

Hartley snorted. “Well then, _Barry Allen_ , I should get back to work too. But I’ll text you when I get off work and we can plan on meeting tonight. Hopefully I’ll have ordered the materials by then. I have lots of questions for you. Pass me your phone?”

Barry obliged, realizing that this was the second person who was typing their number into his phone today.

Was that considered progress with his social life, then?

“Here you go. I’ll text you later. See ya tomorrow, Streak.” Hartley winked, shutting the door behind him.

Okay.

So this day _definitely_ wasn’t going the way he planned at all. His head swam with thoughts of everything that went down in the past twelve hours.

He broke into Harrison Wells’ home and was shot down, ran into Iris, got her _phone number,_ was then was shot down by Wells’ referral Cisco, and then immediately got into a partnership with one of Cisco and Wells’ old colleagues.

Good lord.

After making sure the room was left as clean as it was when he came in, he walked out and shut the door behind him.

The lobby was empty save for the receptionist and the guards, and he nodded at both of them on his way out.

He checked to make sure the coast was clear before he ran back to his apartment. He flopped back onto the couch once he slid through the front door and sighed.

If just _one_ thing could go his way this week, he’d have a lot easier time dealing with everything else.

What was the point in planning anything out if it all went awry anyways?

Now apparently he was going out for a drink tomorrow tonight. Turns out he didn’t need to do much work to make new friends. Seems like those new friends were just falling right into his lap.

Without even realizing it, Barry slowly drifted off into an uncomfortable sleep, images of lightning and red eyes haunting his every sleepy thought.

—

He’d woken up with a kink in his neck thanks to his time sleeping on the couch.

As uncomfortable and sore as his entire body was, he still headed into work that morning, nodding politely at all the officers as he went.

No sign of Joe or Patty, which meant that they were probably working a case right now.

Barry, on the other hand, needed to look at the evidence from the Chyre murder for himself.

The sub-forensic scientist that worked when Barry had time off, had texted him and told him he’d started the report and it was lying inside the desk in his lab.

So he took the stairs two at a time and unlocked the doors, shutting them behind him and hurrying for the desk.

Thank god for super speed, because Barry was able to just speed read through the report.

It wasn’t anything necessarily out of the ordinary. There were plenty of murders where the victim had been bludgeoned to death or multiple bruises from a beating.

No, the extraordinary part was that the bruises on his body were the size of golf balls and there was almost a pattern to the bruising.

Not to mention one of the eye-witness accounts said that there was a sudden influx of hail and thunder in the area around the time of the attack.

Hail that could very well have been the size of golf balls.

There was no way…

Barry slumped down into his chair and tossed the file onto the desk in front of him.

There’s no way it could by Clyde. Joe shot him that night he attacked. The paramedics declared him dead not soon after.

It was either Joe shoot him, or Mardon shoot Joe. So Joe made the best decision he could.

Barry had collapsed not too far away after stopping the tornado, all the energy completely taken out of him, so he wasn’t there when Joe shot him.

Still, unless the reports were faked, Clyde Mardon was dead.

But then, he thought, was it really so unbelievable to think that Clyde could be alive? After he watched the man create tornadoes and control the weather, anything was possible really.

He rolled his chair over to the forensic lab phone, calling a couple of different sources and asking for any information on Clyde Mardon.

They all said the same thing: he was dead. 

So either everyone was covering it up, or it was someone else entirely.

But who else could it be? It had to be a meta. It just had to be. There was no scientific explanation for the weather lately.

It was a meta, Barry was sure of it.

So he wheeled around again, this time to his file cabinet of old, but labeled important, case files.

He flipped through Clyde’s file, looking for anything that could help.

And then he looked at any noted relatives that Clyde had.

The one that stuck out to him most was Mark Mardon. Died on December 11th in a plane crash the night the particle accelerator blew.

The very same plane that Clyde Mardon was on that night when he got endowed with the power to control the weather.

Then it clicked.

Mark had to have gotten the same powers as his brother, right? They were in the same plane when it went down.

Maybe that’s who they needed to be looking for. He needed to write up a good report, one that would actually put all of his thoughts into a cohesive argument.

Singh wouldn’t just take him on his word, after all.

He spent the entire afternoon crafting his report, and submitted it to Singh when it felt it was good enough.

At least that was one thing accomplished. Maybe the police could do more digging and find things out that Barry couldn’t.

Besides, now Barry had a new mission. He needed to track down Mardon himself. There was no way the police would be able to handle a metahuman like that on their own.

Mark had had a lot more time with his powers than his brother did, and therefore would be even more dangerous.

He checked his watch, surprised to see it was already 4 o’clock.

Then he checked his phone and saw a text from Hartley, sent over two hours ago.

_Materials are ordered. Should be here within the week. Seven o’clock okay to start talking logistics? – H_

Well okay then. That was quick.

That still gave him two hours of free time though. He was scheduled to work until eight tonight, but with all the reports and analyses done in record time, Singh had no reason to keep him any longer that Barry wanted to stay here.

He texted Hartley back and told him about a bar that he knew of with great chicken wings and put his phone back in his pocket. 

Until seven, he needed to keep busy and now was a good a time as any to start on that program. He needed to track these weather anomalies now that he had a theory on who was causing all of this.

With a hot cup of coffee by his side, he set about on his laptop.

This wasn’t his first time creating a program. He used to fiddle with his laptop in the computer lab in college.

He lost himself in the coding and pretty soon his vision was getting fuzzy from staring at the black and white screen for so long. He didn’t even notice that it had gotten dark and the rain picked up again, splattering against the fogged up windows

When he finally tore his eyes from the laptop to look at the clock on the wall by his locker, he stood up so quickly the chair rolled away and hit the table across the room.

He quickly switched out his hoodie for the nicer jacket he kept in his locker, popping up the collar to have easier access to the hood.

After a quick stop in Singh’s office, telling him the situation, he hurried down to the bar, actually feeling a little bit of excitement pool in his belly.

It was a bar that was pretty close to the precinct, so it didn’t take him long at all to get there.

The last time he’d been out with a friend or colleague like this was pre-particle accelerator.

As he pushed through the doors and the bell dinged, he mused to himself: maybe working with Hartley wouldn’t be so bad after all.

-

Okay, scratch that. Working with Hartley was kind of difficult.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t helpful. On the contrary, he was very knowledgeable and wasn’t half bad at helping Barry decide on a design as they ate wings and drank beer.

The problem was that he was kind of an ass.

When he’d heard that the material was Cisco’s idea, he made a condescending comment every chance he could.

When working on the design, he would made snide remarks about Barry’s choices or give him a look like he was an idiot.

Truthfully, he was happy with the designs, so he wasn’t too upset.

Though he was dreading having to work more often with Hartley after tonight.

Still, he had to be the mature one here. Hartley was taking time out of his workday to help Barry. He may have had an unlikable personality, but he was willing to help the greater good.

He couldn’t be that bad deep down right?

Not being able to get drunk was extremely disappointing, but it still calmed his nerves a bit as the conversation shifted to their little deal.

The plans for the suit were put away, tucked in Barry’s messenger bag, and it was nearing eleven o’clock. 

Luckily, the bar wasn’t that busy and the few people that were there were extremely wasted already.

The two guys playing pool were tripping over each other whenever they took their turn. One even face planted the floor after a lone ball hit the floor minutes prior.

Even the bartender seemed to have very little interest in them. They were seated in the far corner of the bar in a booth that felt pretty secluded.

“So where do you do all this… stuff? Do you have like a base or something?” Hartley asked, wiping the barbecue at corner of his mouth with his napkin.

Barry looked down, feeling a little embarrassed at how much of an amateur he was. “Well, not really. I’m mostly working out of my apartment right now. I did create a program this afternoon for tracking weather anomalies, if that uh, helps me look any less lame.”

He was sure his face was bright red with embarrassment and he distracted himself by swirling a wing in some sauce.

Hartley laughed before pushing Barry’s wing with his own, gaining his attention. “Look, I’m sorry if I’ve come across kind of rude tonight. I really do think what you’re doing is pretty remarkable. And no one could be perfect at it on their first try. I’ve been told I’m kind of a… well, I think the word Cisco likes to use is “douchebag”, but I suppose you can substitute it with whatever word you want.”

Barry stifled a laugh, about to speak before Hartley continued, “I may seem antisocial sometimes but the truth is that I’ve been alone most of my life. Whether it was for being gay, a nerd in high school and college, or being kind of a condescending ass, I don’t know.”

Barry looked at Hartley. _Really_ looked at him. At the sincerity and anguish on his face. It was clear he was telling the truth and Barry couldn’t help but feel a connection to him.

Someone just as lonely, sad, and lost as he was.

“I’m not just doing this to show Wells he was wrong for firing me, for ruining my life. I’m doing it because I’m tired of being alone.”

Barry reached out and placed his hand on Hartley’s forearm, squeezing it lightly. “Me too. It’s almost like you’re in my head, telling me things that I myself feel. Doing… _this,_ is hard enough. Doing it alone is even harder. I went to Wells and Cisco, not just for help, but with the hope that maybe they’d want to join my little crusade.”

Hartley smiled a little, nodding in understanding before lifting his beer glass. “Here’s to not being lonely anymore.”

Barry laughed, clinking his glass with Hartley’s. “To not being alone.”

They shared another small smile before tipping back their drinks.

It was silent for a moment as each of them was caught up in their own thoughts.

Then suddenly, Hartley glanced up at Barry with a slightly guilty look on his face.“Barry, I need to tell you something-“

“ _What the fuck is your problem, man?!”_

They both whipped their heads towards the door, where a drunk patron was in the face of another man.

The second man was wearing a ratty brown jacket with holes and dirt and his hair was so long and dirty that they couldn’t see his face.

“Just leave me alone.” The man spoke quietly, his voice raspy.

“Frank, just leave the guy be.” The bartender came around the bar, putting his hands gently on the chest of the first guy and trying to push him away.

He pushed away the bartenders hands angrily. “No! This is the third night this week that this freak has come in here, disrupting my night with his muttering and his crashing into everything in sight. I’ve had it. He just knocked into my girl. Spilled her beer all over her.”

“Sir, maybe you’d better just leave.” The bartender spoke to the dirtier man, trying to deescalate the situation _._

Barry’s stomach twisted and he had a strange feeling in his gut when he looked at the man.

He was shaking now, like he was cold. Or maybe it was rage, Barry didn’t know.

But what happened next was something Barry never, ever saw coming.

One minute they were watching the man shake like mad, and the next, he’d lit on fire.

But he wasn’t in pain. On the contrary, he looked relieved and angry that he was being harassed by this other guy.

When his face was revealed and he looked up, it was glowing orange and his eyes literally shone with fire.

Hartley gasped at the sight and before Barry knew what he was doing, he was hitting the ground, pulling Barry with him as fire erupted from the man and lit the bar on fire, spouting off it all directions.

They were far enough for the door that it didn’t do much damage to them

But there were screams coming from the door, and Barry hated to think about what was happening.

He had to do something.

Making sure Hartley was secure and behind their booth, on the opposite side of danger, he super-sped into his makeshift suit and rushed towards the door.

The walls and door around them were on fire, and Barry sped to the back of the bar to find the fire extinguisher.

The man on fire was gone, and the glass on the front door was shattered across the concrete outside, suggesting he’d ran as soon as he lit the place up.

The bartender and the other man were struggling on the ground, trying to put their clothes out.

Barry hosed them down with the extinguisher and then worked on the walls, which were already charred.

There were already a couple of people running from the bar, causing even more ruckus outside.

The few that stayed behind looked at him in awe, unsure of what the hell he was and probably why the hell he was dressed like he was.

He heard Hartley on the phone, already calling 911.

His thoughts ran a mile a minute as he thought of what to do next.

“I’m going to take off your shirts okay? Make sure they have fused to your skin from the heat.” Barry told them, deepening his voice as he removed the hot material from their chests. They were red and peeling and were now groaning in agony. But the shirts came off, which was a good sign.

One man came to his side with a load of old wash rags, drenched in cold water.

“Good.” He nodded at the man, whose hands were shaking as he and Barry placed the rags on the crying men. “Thank you.”

He made eye contact with Hartley, who nodded.

Then he ran to the back and undressed himself, back into his normal clothes before joining Hartley, who was ushering the remaining people out of the bar.

The people who weren’t hurt, stood there dumbfounded at what just happened. They’d all gathered around the men on the ground, but they _had_ just witnessed a guy super speed in and out before they could even get a proper look.

“Nice work.” Hartley complimented in whisper. “That was quick thinking with the extinguisher and removing their shirts. You’ve got a knack for this superhero stuff, don’t you?”

“I don’t know about that.” Barry shrugged, fixing his jacket and looking around. “What the hell was that? Who the hell was that?” He whispered, as the familiar sound of police sirens hit his ears.

There must have been a patrol nearby, thankfully.

Hartley looked worried again as he dusted off his own coat. “I know, well, knew him from Star Labs. He was part of Wells’ team. He was an engineer. And also, one of Cisco’s good friends there.”

Barry remembered Cisco talking about how he lost a friend. He instantly felt sympathy for the other man. “What happened to him?”

“He died. At least, everyone assumed he was dead. He- look, we should talk about this later.” Hartley whispered as the police exited their vehicle and rushed towards the bar. “This information isn’t exactly for prying ears.”

Barry agreed, watching a woman nearby cry, shaken up by what they just witnessed.

“I’ll text you when I’m free again, okay? Probably this weekend. McGee has us working longer shifts these days.” Hartley continued, interrupting Barry’s thoughts.

Barry nodded, desperate for answers, but not wanting to push Hartley. Besides, he was right about the prying ears thing.

“Just another mystery to try and solve. The particle accelerator really is the gift that keeps on giving, huh?” Barry sighed, nodding towards the officer that was walking their way to get their statements.

Hartley shook his head. “I have a feeling we’re only just beginning to see the negative effects of that goddamn accelerator.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until next time!


	6. Episode 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof. Sorry about the long wait, everybody.   
> University started up again, Batwoman started, and I was having a hard time finding the time to finish up this chapter.  
> But HOW ABOUT THAT SEASON 7 TRAILER?!?!?!?! Seeing that trailer definitely boosted my spirits and gave me some energy to finish this chapter up. S7 is going to be INCREDIBLE!  
> Anyways, hope you all enjoy the new chapter! :)

It took several more days for the materials to come in and in the meantime, the investigation was now in full swing.

Singh was satisfied with the work Barry did on all the evidence and now police officers and all major banks in town were alerted to Mark Mardon potentially being at large.

News about The Streak at the bar a couple of days ago had spread too. Even people at the precinct were beginning to talk about him now.

It was harder to ignore when more and more articles online were talking about him.

He just really wanted to get a legitimate suit so that he could stop going out there in sweats and a cloth mask.

Once the initial shock of what happened that night ended, Hartley had remarked about how goofy his “suit” looked. Barry was inclined to agree even if it was incredibly embarrassing to admit it. He did look pretty silly.

Meanwhile, Barry was still burning with questions about what Hartley knew about the man on fire the other night.

Apparently, he’d worked with Cisco and Hartley at Star Labs before everything happened.

On top of that mystery, he was still tracking Mark by himself too.

Hartley had helped make a little tweak to his program and now he could get alerts when there were strange spikes in the weather around.

There were a couple of times it had gone above normal, but it was never anything that required his attention.

Mark must have been on the down-low the past few days.

Either he somehow heard that they’d caught onto him, or he was planning something big and needed time to make it happen.

It gave Barry time to think about a better base for this operation though.

Star Labs.

With a hole blown clean through the roof and the entire place completely abandoned, it was the perfect spot to hole up in.

Not to mention the plethora of tech and materials that would be extremely beneficial to him.

Wells probably wouldn’t mind, right?

It’s not like he was using it and it was going to waste just sitting there.

If he had a problem with it, Barry would just talk to him. The man had to be reasonable enough, right?

He’d texted Hartley after work and told him to meet him at the entrance to CCPD so they could go there together.

Understandably, Hartley was weary about choosing Star Labs as their base, after everything that happened there.

But it was logically the best choice for them. Abandoned, in near-ruins, and with some tech left that others deemed useless and not worthy of taking.

So, Hartley eventually agreed that it was the best course of action.

And now they were going to check the place out, fix what they needed to fix, and settle in one or two of the rooms with what they’d need.

It was actually pretty exciting, to have a new plan and someone to share it with.

He checked his watch and ran his hand through his hair.

“Barry!” He turned his head to the left at the sound of his name and was greeted by another friendly face.

Not the one he was waiting for though.

“Hey, Patty. How are you?”

She shrugged, dressed in her usual slacks, but with a thick overcoat on instead of just her dress shirt. “I’m alright. A bit tired. Detective West has been working really hard on this case. It is pretty personal for him so I understand. Still though, it’s exhausting.”

Barry nodded. He had thought about Joe quite a bit lately. The man was more tied to this case than anyone else. He’s the one that shot and killed Clyde, and now Mark had killed his old partner. An eye for an eye.

It wasn’t hard to guess that Mark was probably getting revenge for what happened to his brother. It was their chief idea for this case and so far the one that made the most sense.

Why else would someone with the ability to control the weather kill a specific cop, attack the city with freak weather, and promise to kill Harrison Wells next?

“Barry…?” Patty laughed, poking his arm to regain his attention.

He hadn’t even realized he’d drifted off and blushed hard. “Sorry. I’ve just been thinking about Joe a lot these days. I can’t imagine what he’s going through.”

Patty smiled sadly. “He’s taking it hard. Iris has just about as much police protection as Harrison Wells at this point. He’s really worried Mardon will go after her after Wells.”

Barry gulped, the idea making him feel sick to his stomach.

He opened his mouth to reassure Patty that they’d all be okay, when another voice interrupted them.

“Allen, hey. I- sorry. Am I interrupting?” Hartley looked between Barry and Patty.

Patty smiled awkwardly and Barry shook his head. “No, it’s okay. We were just talking. Are you heading home?” He directed the question at Patty.

“Oh uh, yeah.” She stuffed her hands in her pockets.

Barry smiled kindly at her, “Okay, well Hartley and I have some place to be, but I’ll catch up with you later. Get home safe, alright?”

She nodded and Barry started heading down the stairs, Hartley following soon after waving to Patty.

“There’s a bus stop up there we can take. We can’t all have super speed.” He flicked his hood over his head as it started sprinkling.

Barry smirked, tugging on Hartley’s sleeve and pulling into the nearest alleyway. “You know, if you want, I can run there with you.”

Hartley quirked an eyebrow at him. “You can do that?”

“If I have your permission to basically be my guinea pig. I’ve never run with someone before. You might get sick since your body isn’t used to these high speeds.” Barry peeked over the dumpster to make sure no one was looking in.

Hartley looked pensive for a moment as he thought about it. “Okay.” He shrugged. “Just hold my neck so it doesn’t snap, yeah?”

Barry snorted. “Yeah yeah, let’s go.”

He placed one hand on Hartley’s back and the other on the back of his neck.

Before Hartley could change his mind, Barry took off, feeling the familiar breeze whip at his face.

He had no idea what Hartley felt like, only that he was stiff as a board and his brain probably couldn’t even comprehend what was going on yet.

He came to halt right outside Star Labs, gripping the back of Hartley’s jacket to keep him from collapsing.

“You okay?” Barry asked, noting that the other man looked pretty pale. Well, paler than normal.

Hartley just nodded, staggering over to the nearest wall, and bowing his head, breathing heavily. “I just need a second.”

Barry walked up to the panel on the door. “Any idea about the code?”

Hartley shook his head. “No. Wells used to change it every month, so it was changed multiple times after I left.”

He was still breathing heavily but had a little more color in his cheeks.

So, Barry typed in as many passwords as he could, none of them having any success.

He sighed in defeat, taking a moment to stop and think about it.

“Barry,” Hartley pushed off the wall, less shaky, “there was one password in particular that he used to circulate a lot. Try Tess Morgan.”

Barry obliged, and moments later the machine beeped, and the doors unlocked.

“Good call.” Barry stepped through first, peering around the corner cautiously.

The hallway dark and dreary, where it once had bright lights, people, and security guards.

“Sooo. Who was that?” Hartley asked in an almost cheeky tone as he followed Barry inside.

Barry shut the door behind Hartley when the coast was clear.

“Who?” He asked, eyebrows furrowed.

“That blonde girl in front of the precinct. The one you were chatting up.” Hartley elbowed him with that sly smile on his face.

Barry flushed red. “That’s nothing. She’s just a friend and coworker.”

“That blush says otherwise.” Hartley smirked harder. “For what it’s worth, it was pretty obvious she likes you too.”

Barry shook his head. “No, I really don’t- wait what?”

Hartley laughed, pushing the button on the elevator that would lead them up to the cortex. “She was getting all fluttery-eyed and smiley whenever you weren’t looking at her.”

“Oh. I didn’t know.” Barry knew Patty had always been kinder to him than most, but he never imagined she had any sort of romantic feelings for him.

Maybe the lack of romantic relationships throughout his life made him stupidly blind to the attention?

How did he feel?

He honestly couldn’t say. Flattered? Embarrassed? Guilty?

“You okay?” Hartley asked, eyebrows furrowed. “You really didn’t know?”

Barry shook his head. “No. There’s… someone else I’ve actually liked for a long time. Someone that’s- not her.”

“Oh.” Hartley coughed awkwardly as they approached the cortex. “And who would that be?”

Barry pushed through the doors with ease and they were met with a very dirty and dusty room, full of equipment that had sheets over it and a computer table that was equally as dusty.

“Uh, her name is Iris West.” Barry dusted off a computer monitor and revealed the Star Labs logo on it.

Hartley started exploring around the cortex. “Hope to meet her sometime.” He tugged a sheet off and revealed a gurney and some medical supplies. “Man, this place looks so different. Not just dirty, but… abandoned. It used to make me feel so important being in here.”

Barry watched the other man wander around.

He couldn’t imagine how weird it must be to be back here. After being fired, after what happened here.

“You okay?” Barry asked sympathetically.

Hartley cleared his throat and nodded. “Yeah. Let’s check out these computers. See if we can fix them up. Then we’ll see what kind of medical supplies are still here. Can’t guarantee I’ll be much help though. I’m no medical doctor.”

Barry nodded, using his super speed to run about the area and remove all the sheets. He coughed as dust filled the air. “I think between the two of us, we can probably figure things out.”

The computer screen nearest Hartley was on now, making the area glow. It was rather dark, the only light coming from the windows close to the ceiling.

He watched Hartley flick through some notifications after he’d logged in. “Looks like the system is still in pretty good condition. No one has logged in for several months so it could use some updates. Other than that, it looks fine. And its Star Labs so its going to be pretty damn secure. What do you want to do?”

Barry thought for a moment about the best way to go about this. “Star Labs has satellites, right? Can we use one of them to better track these weather anomalies?”

Hartley nodded. “Yeah. Probably. I can start getting to work on that. I’m not a crazy tech genius, so it might take me a bit.”

He looked at the chair like sitting it in would cause him to spontaneously combust. But he grumbled to himself and sat in it anyways.

“Okay, good. I’ll clean up this room a bit, change the lightbulbs, and go get us something to eat. I’m starving. What do you want? I was going to stop at Big Belly Burger on my way to the hardware store.”

Hartley looked up at him, amused. “I just had lunch a couple of hours ago. I’ll take a milkshake though.”

Barry nodded. “Okay. Can do. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes or so. I’m feeling tired, so I’m going to take my time.” He winked for good measure.

Hartley rolled his eyes.

Barry laughed as he set off for the hardware store. He was enjoying messing with Hartley a little. Aside from being intensely sarcastic, Hartley didn’t have much in the ways of a sense of humor and Barry was determined to remedy that.

If they were going to work together so closely, they had to learn to enjoy each others’ company. Otherwise, this was going to become more of a chore than anything.

As he ran, he thought more about what Hartley had said about Patty. Truthfully, she was very pretty. And sweet, kind, smart, and on paper, exactly the kind of person Barry should be into.

But then he thought about Iris. About the crush he had on her in school, about the way his stomach always filled with butterflies at the sight of her. Even when it was from afar, pre-coma. And how could he ever feel okay about giving Patty a chance when he knew Iris was the one he really wanted to be with?

He sighed, turning into the parking lot for the hardware store.

Then again, he didn’t even know if Iris felt the same way. He knew very little about her personal life, only what she told him in their chats recently. So, by holding himself out for Iris, what if he missed out on something really great with Patty?

Gathering the supplies as quickly as possible and slapping down a couple hundred dollar bills, he first made a pit stop at Star Labs to drop this stuff off before switching gears and going to the nearest Big Belly Burger.

He checked his watch. It had only taken him a little over a minute to go to the hardware store and back. It wasn’t terribly far from Star Labs, but he was still proud of himself.

But now, waiting in line to order his food felt like it was taking hours. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to how this felt.

When he got back to Star Labs, food in tow, he found Hartley in the exact same position as before.

“Five minutes and eleven seconds.” Hartley said as a way of greeting. “Kinda slow for a speedster, eh?”

Barry paused as he was putting the milkshake down in front of Hartley. “You timed me?”

Hartley nodded.

Then Barry burst out laughing, happy at the chance of pace between the two. Less awkward tension and more… friendly. Like they could actually be friends despite being polar opposites in almost every way.

“Alright, alright. To be fair though, I had to wait in line for the food otherwise I would have been here at least three minutes earlier.”

Hartley snorted before he took a sip of his strawberry milkshake. “Okay. I think I’ve got our program hooked into the satellite. We should get pings at even the slightest change of temperature. I also hacked us in to the CCPD database. In case we need to look people up.”

At Barry’s look of alarm, Hartley continued. “I know you work there and it’s illegal. I also know you have your own legal ways of getting into the database. But we need to be able to do it without it being traced back to you. And I’m sure that’s the last thing you want right now.”

Barry nodded after a moment. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. And that’s a really good idea, man. Thanks.”

Hartley just smiled slightly, the left corner of his mouth turning up just slightly.

With that out of the way, Barry pushed a few fries into his mouth, contemplating on whether or not to ask Hartley the question that had been on his mind since the other night.

Deciding it was best to ask now, before things with this weather anomaly thing picked up speed, he cleared his throat to get Hartley’s attention.

The other man quirked an eyebrow, arms crossed as he turned towards Barry.

“I think we should talk about the other night. You definitely knew something about the man on fire and if we’re going to be working together, I need you to trust me enough to be able to tell me things like this. As long as it as to do with the safety of innocents, I deserve to know. Especially if this guy has to do with Wells somehow. Hell, he could be working with his other meta to try and take down Wells.”

Hartley exhaled loudly, playing with the straw on his cup. “Okay. Guess I’ll start from the beginning. I was one of the first people on Wells’ team. He was friends with my parents, who are rich assholes. But they helped fund some of Wells’ earlier projects. They liked throwing their money around and looking important. So, when I finished my PhD, Wells offered me a spot on his team, maybe to partially thank my parents for all they did for him.”

Barry nodded, heart thumping at the possibilities of where this could possibly be going.

“After me, this bio-engineer showed up. Her name was Caitlin Snow and she was this goody-two shoes that seemed to hate my guts. Wells loved her though, said she reminded him of his late-wife, Tess. Then Wells recruited this guy named Ronnie Raymond. He looked like one of those meatheads, you know? I knew things about him the second I knew him. Which sounds awful, I know. But he was a good engineer. Ended up being the lead structural engineer, actually. They didn’t hit it off right away, but I could tell Ronnie liked her. I even told him once that office romances were always a bad idea, but he ignored me.”

Hartley had gotten this far-away look in his eyes now as he reminisced about the past and things that he would probably rather not think about now. And Barry had a sick feeling that he knew what was going to happen next.

“Cisco came about a year after that. When we were already pretty far along with the accelerator. The three of them formed this little posse. Which irritated the shit out me because it felt like high school again. Everyone else getting all the attention, all the praise, and having friends and lives outside of work. Me? I was a loner, and slowly fading into the background. And then the night of the particle accelerator happened.” At this, Hartley took a deep intake of breath.

“I had already been let go at that point. After I warned Wells about what could happen if he continued with the opening. Cisco was all too happy to take up my position. Then all the bad shit I knew would happen, happened. Ronnie died. Countless others were hit with the dark matter energy the accelerator released. And no one knew how it affected people. _If_ it even did.”

“But now we do.” Barry confirmed.

Hartley nodded. “Yeah. And it’s not just you. We all thought Ronnie was dead. But that was him the other night. He’s the man on fire. I’m absolutely sure of it. What I’m not sure about is what he’s doing. He could have lost his memory, maybe he’s not even Ronnie anymore.”

Something still wasn’t adding up to him. “You mentioned a woman named Caitlin. What happened to her? Shouldn’t we tell her that her boyfriend is alive?”

“That would be the right thing to do, wouldn’t it? The only problem with that is that Caitlin’s gone.”

His food forgotten, Barry leaned back, heart aching at how horrible this all was. “She’s dead?”

“No. Some government agency has her in custody.”

Barry’s mind was spinning. “What? Why?”

Hartley rubbed his temples. “She got powers that night too. Only it did weird stuff to her. At first, she was fine. She had to stay in her apartment most days, with the air conditioning cranked way up. She also had these weird… spells, I guess you could call them. It was like dealing with a patient that has multiple personality disorder. Sometimes it was Caitlin, sometimes it was someone else. Cisco came to me for help, because he had no one else to go to and this was one of his best friends. And tried every test we could to figure out why she was switching personalities. Until that someone else broke out and killed a couple of homeless men outside her apartment building.”

His stomach turned. Jesus Christ.

“She stabbed them with icicles that she created from her own palm. The only witness that night, another homeless man, reported her to the police and before we knew it, they were whisking her away. We haven’t heard anything about her since.” Hartley finished his story and Barry noticed that his hands were a little shaky.

Barry hung his head. He was kind of at a loss. “Why haven’t I heard anything about this? I would think that would be on the news.”

Hartley shrugged. “The government, military, whoever it is, is keeping it real quiet. They’ll silence anyone that is a witness, and they cover their tracks well. I could get in trouble for just telling you everything I did.”

“I had no idea, Hartley. I didn’t mean to make you relive all that. Regardless of whether you were close to them or not, that’s a terrible thing to go through.”

“Thanks.” Hartley said stiffly, sipping his milkshake to distract himself.

“I know it’s not something you’d be thrilled with, but we might be able to get some information out of Cisco. He was their best friend after all. If anyone understands Ronnie, its him. And it’s a decent place to start…”

Hartley interrupted him. “Actually, there might be another way.” He paused, typing something up on the computer. “Usually, I don’t think much of these things because they’re usually bullshit created by people who just want attention. But in this case, this person might actually know some shit.”

He finished his search and clicked on a link that led to them to a blogsite.

_ The Streak Lives _

_By: Anonymous_

_A blog documenting sightings of ‘The Streak’_

Barry’s heart sped up. Someone had a blog about him? Someone was actually taking the time to follow sources about him and post them on the internet? He was both shocked and flattered by this.

“You think this person might know something about Ronnie?” He asked, keeping his voice steady and trying not to show that this whole thing made him feel a little giddy inside.

Hartley scrolled down the page, to an article from two days ago entitled “Burning Mans Trail of Destruction”. On it was a picture of Ronnie. Clothes burnt, face dirty, and hair coming down over his eyes as he fled the scene of the crime that night. “Yeah. This person isn’t just following you. They’re keeping track of any and all metas in Central City.”

The excitement of having someone dedicate a blog to him was wearing off now, replaced by a feeling of being too overwhelmed to think properly. “There are a lot more metas out there than I thought.”

“Exactly.” Hartley leaned back again. “Which I why I think we should track this person down and have a chat with them. Or rather, _The Streak_ needs to have a chat with them.”

Barry nodded. Hartley was right. It was time to expand their circle a little more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until next time!


End file.
